Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Having just returned from my 10th time to borovets in the last 8 years I thought I would post my comments .
Stayed at the hotel Mura. First time at this hotel but found it to be OK. Rooms warm,clean and tidy but if you like to spend a lot of time in your hotel room book a superior room as some of the standard ones are quite small . The lift is something to see and would not pass british safety standards although it always worked but I would not let children use it on their own.The staff were helpfull and freindly. The food was as I have come to expect in Bulgarian hotels . Breakfast was Ok and you could always find somethingto eat but the evening meal was as usuall
with not much selection but if you were on a budget you could survive on it unless you were very fussy.
The prices for food and drinks were on a par with last year in the places we went, White Magic, Titanic, Black Tiger, Happy Duck ,Red Lion, Katys , We found all to be hospitable and good value. The touts were very active but no problem as we had a laugh and a joke with most of them especially chris from the happy duck who carried my case to the bus for me when we left.
All of the above places are well worth a visit.
As to other prices in the town I bought a set of Viper-s Skis including bindings for £155 and within the deal the refitted my old skis and bindings to fit for a freind who was hiring from borosport and the gear was rubbish. A freind also bought a wave board and bindings for £130.This was from the shop at the end of the street opposite the Samakov near the Sunshine bar and white Magic.
Now here is where we get to the bad part which mostly involves Borosport and their snow management and the closure of some of the slopes. All week the top of the mountain was closed under the pretense that there was not enough snow as was the mussalla path. This was not correct as both had plenty of snow and having spoken to a lot of people who I respect and have known in the resort for years I beleive it is more to do with Borosports mismanagement than anything else. As with the fact that most of the slopes were not groomed when they should have been making it better for the less accomplished skiers who were being pushed on to slopes they they should not have been on. Before arguments start about my skiing ability I have skied every run in Borovets over the years and some of the time when they had far less snow and more ice on them than they have now but far more effort was being put in to make them skiable.
I have written to Inghams asking for a partiall refund against my lift pass and for the first time ever will consider not returning next year.
On a lighter side it was lovely to see Kas and put a face to the name although I will never forgive her the embarassment caused.Thanks for the reports you do Kas which are very informative and in my experience are about as accurate and unbiased as anything you can get elsewhere.
Sorry for any spelling mistakes and if the above upsets anyone I dont care as it is the truth as I see it at this point in time
dbut

I agree totally with your comments on borosport. I got back yesterday and having only skiied once before, i was having to ski the reds of martinovi baraki which i could do fine after a few goes. Only got to ski Baraki 2/3 and Yastrabetz 3 in 4 days of skiing and the yastrabetz run was awful, icey as hell with mounds of snow all over the place. It just seemed like they couldnt be arsed grooming the pistes. I know there wasnt as much snow as there usually is but the piste management seemed poor. Saying all that the skiing i did get in was really enjoyable, just dissapointed i only got to ski about 3 of 20 runs. Popangelov was closed due to what looked like a downhill skiing competion rather than conditions. Communication on the Yastrabetz gondola was an absolute disgrace, i think it was the thursday afternoon they were sending us up only to be told at the half way station that we had to come back down, and when i got back down they were still sending people up. I dont think i would go to borovets again in a hurry, wouldnt mind trying bansko as borovets would be no good for some of my friends who have never skiied. My opinion on borovets - Great resort, friendly people, great night life but this season i cant see the skiing being any good as every time it did snow it put about 0.1cm down (no exageration) and just to add to the irony it put 3 inches down overnight in blooming manchester. The day i left the baraki runs where awful aswell, incredibly icey with people falling all over the place. Me and my friend even had a sweepstake everytime we went up the 4 man lift as to how many would fall off before we went into the trees lol.

Hi De Buu. (jokes over now) dbut

Posted this on another thread so copied it to this.

Been doing it for 10 years. But was very disappointed that so many pistes were closed. I will be emailing Inghams on this problem as well as the bigginer skiers were herded into larger classes, I saw classes of 15 + with Boro Sport instructors general rumour here was due to new management in Boro Sport. Usually they have around 160 instructors this season only 60. (Appologies if I'm wrong). Then the other issue was the closed pistes on top of the mountain.
Markudjik 1.
Markudjik 2 A
Markudjik 2B
Markudjik 3.
Unofficail reports said there was plenty of snow up there but due to Boro Sport sacking lift opperation staff there was no one there to run them.
At the top of the gondola it stated these piste were closed but the instructors were taking begginers from the Suhar learner slope accross the closed Markudjik 1. and onto the closed Musala pathway. Looks an insurance issue there if any one had injured themselves there.
I won't mention the piste preparation, I suspect someone will add their comments for this nugget.
As in improving intermeadiate I managed all week.
Overall I had a good week as I have seen the slopes in a worse condition.
It will be interesting to see when the snow really falls if they open the closed Pistes, or can they still say closed due to no snow cover.
Highlight of the week meeting Kas & Bobby. Hi to both will see you next season. Advice hit the delete button with gusto and stop worrying.

WE WILL BE BACK.

S.P.
Dick can you give me the Inghams ref number please, to the rest of you. Complain to you holiday company it might improve things out there.

I was out last week too and agree with most of what has been said. I do think John is being a little unfair regarding Thursday and the issue with the gondola. I was up top that day the and wind was picking up. They have to make a decision as to when they are going to close the gondola before the wind actually gets too strong, otherwise there would be ski schools stuck on the top of the mountain. It was unfortunate or fortunate (depends on your perspective) that the wind actually died down than got stronger that day.